Marketing via social media: a case study
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-12-2012-0141 |
| Date | 02 September 2013 |
| Published date | 02 September 2013 |
| Pages | 455-466 |
| Author | Lili Luo,Yuan Wang,Lifeng Han |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology |
Marketing via social media:
a case study
Lili Luo
School of Library and Information Science, San Jose State University, San Jose,
California, USA, and
Yuan Wang and Lifeng Han
University Library, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a study about a successful, award-winning online
video marketing project at an academic library in China, hoping to shed light on how to most
effectively employ social media in libraries’ marketing campaigns.
Design/methodology/approach – The study examined the different aspects of the library’s online
video marketing project, including project preparation, video production, distribution and promotion,
and evaluation of students’ perception of this project via survey questionnaires. Factors that
contributed to its success were also analyzed.
Findings – Four factors that contributed to the success of the library’s video marketing project were
identified: base video content on the real campus life, reflecting what students experience in their
everyday activities; convey content in a humorous, light-hearted, and refreshing style; employ social
media to share content and engage the target audience; and partner with students.
Practical implications – The paper helps interested librarians develop a more grounded
understanding of how video sharing sites can be effectively and efficiently used as a marketing
platform and how to successfully create their own video marketing campaigns.
Originality/value – One significant weakness in library marketing literature is the lack of empirical
studies analyzing the details of creating an online video marketing campaign. This paper helps fill that
void, and contributes to the growth of the knowledge about library marketing using innovative
technologies.
Keywords Online video marketing,Library marketing, Video sharingsite, Social media, Marketing,
China
Paper type Case study
1. Introduction
Libraries have a well-established tradition of going where users are. Since social media
has introduced substantial and pervasive changes to communication between
organizations, communities, and individuals in recent years, libraries are increasingly
embracing it to strengthen their connections with the user community. Defined as “a
group of internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of
user-generated content” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, p. 61), social media technologies
take on many different forms such as blogs, microblogs, wikis, social networking sites,
social bookmarking sites, photo and video sharing sites. According to the Pew Internet
and American Life project, in 2011, 65 percent of adult internet users used a social
networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, and 71 percent of online
Americans used video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo (Moore, 2011).
Given the popularity of social media, libraries have been actively establishing
presence on its various outlets. A survey conducted by EBSCO among European
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Marketing via
social media
455
Received 18 December 2012
Revised 11 February 2013
19 February 2013
Accepted 23 March 2013
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 31 No. 3, 2013
pp. 455-466
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-12-2012-0141
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